After many of his films have taken the OTT route over the past year, Rajkummar Rao is delighted to be back on the silver screen with Roohi. Also starring Varun Sharma and Janhvi Kapoor, Roohi will hit theaters on March 11. Here Rao plays a village simpleton named Bhawra who falls in love with a woman possessed by a ghost. Rao had previous success with this genre in 2018’s Stree and hopes to hit gold again.
Speaking to indianexpress.com, Rao spoke about Dinesh Vijan’s horror-comedy universe that began with Stree, in collaboration with Janhvi Kapoor and the worldwide success of The White Tiger.
Raj told how he made sure that Bhawra and Vicky (Stree) were not alike. “It was fun then to work on Stree, a horror comedy, first of its kind, and then to go back to that world and play a different character. For me, I wanted to play Bhawra in a way that he doesn’t remind the audience of Vicky from Stree. That’s why it was a challenge for me to make it look and feel different. I had to use a different speech pattern, I colored my hair, my styling is very different from Stree’s, ”he said.
The Trapped actor said that producer Dinesh Vijan wants to create a horror-comedy universe and with Roohi he starts to build on that. Since these movies belong to the same universe, it’s possible that both of Rao’s characters will one day appear in a movie together. The Newton actor teased that possibility, saying, “Dinesh has a bigger plan to make it into a universe where you will see Bhawra meet Vicky, that would be exciting to watch. They can also reunite in the same movie. However, Raj remained a mother to his likely appearance in Varun Dhawan’s Bhediya, which also appears to be a part of Dinesh Vijan’s horror-comedy universe.
Roohi also plays Janhvi Kapoor and like many other star children, she too has been accused of nepotism since her debut in Dhadak. Rao said of his talented co-star: “Janhvi is a very talented actor, we have seen her grow in every film from Dhadak to Roohi. She really likes what she’s doing. From the responses we get online, I think people want to see talent on the screen, the response we get is great so I don’t see a problem there. “
Now that the movies are back in theaters, the pressure of box office numbers is sure to return. But Raj believes people “want to invest their money in the right movie, they want to go and have a good experience.” He added, “If the movie is good, people will start watching it.”
The White Tiger, where Rao played a central role, has just received two nominations at BAFTA 2021. Speaking of the worldwide success of the Netflix film, the Omerta actor said: “It’s great! We all knew we were making something special, I was really excited to work on The White Tiger just to get the chance to work with someone like Ramin (Bahrani), I’ve been a great admirer of his work . And now the kind of response it’s gotten from the global public is phenomenal, it’s overwhelming
Rajkummar Rao recently concluded Badhaai Do with Bhumi Pednekar and also has Hum Do Humare Do in his cat. Roohi will hit theaters on Thursday March 11.